San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee dead at 65

pulse

December 12, 2017 11:26 AM

“It is with profound sadness and terrible grief that we confirm that Mayor Edwin M. Lee passed away on Tuesday, December 12 at 1:11 a.m."

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee suffered a heart attack and died on Tuesday morning at the age of 65.
Lee had been out with a team of volunteers cleaning up the city three days ago.
Lee presided over Silicon Valley's magnificent tech boom and was the first mayor of San Francisco with Chinese ancestry. The city has had a Chinese presence since 1850.

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee died just after 1 a.m. local time at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, the San Francisco Examiner reports.

"It is with profound sadness and terrible grief that we confirm that Mayor Edwin M. Lee passed away on Tuesday, December 12 at 1:11 a.m. at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. Family, friends and colleagues were at his side," his office said in a statement, according to the Examiner. "Our thoughts and prayers are with his wife Anita, his two daughters, Brianna and Tania, and his family."

Lee will be succeeded by London Breed, the San Francisco board of supervisors president.

Lee was originally appointed by the board as mayor in 2011 and won reelection in 2015.

Lee reportedly suffered a heart attack and collapsed Monday night while shopping at a Safeway grocery store, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

As recently as last week Lee joined his "Fix-It Team" cleaning up the streets of the city and addressing quality-of-life issues.

Lee presided over San Francisco during pivotal years when Silicon Valley giants took off and revolutionized industry while causing home prices in his city to skyrocket.

Lee was San Francisco's 43rd mayor and the first of Chinese ancestry in a city that served as a hub for Chinese immigration as far back as the 1850s.

But Lee's run as mayor ran into international controversy recently when he accepted a statue from South Korea commemorating the "comfort women" whom the Japanese military used as sex slaves during World War II. As a result, Osaka ended its "sister city" relationship with San Francisco.

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